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1918

The influenza epidemic hits Needham. An Emergency Health committee is formed to build an emergency annex on Chestnut Street. The Glover Home and Hospital and its annex admits 121 flu patients between September 1918 and January 1919, of which 22 cases are fatal.

"A hospital appeals very strongly to me. The times through which we have just passed show how much we need such an institution. A hospital will be a comfort always to all who need it."
- Thomas Sutton, Town Clerk; Needham Chronicle, February 8, 1919

Nurses in Boston preparing food and "gruel" for the sick Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Print Department In Needham, a Red Cross Canteen was set up to provide food for sick patients at the hospital and in infected homes. Twenty townswomen volunteered as cooks and many more donated foods.
A City of Boston Health Department poster warning citizens about influenza, "Influenza and Pneumonia: Advice as to Care of Patients, and as to Prevention of these Diseases," from William C. Woodward, MD, Health Commissioner, 1918 Courtesy of the Massachusetts Historical Society
A man being inoculated with the influenza virus Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Print Department
Women being inoculated with the influenza virus Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Print Department
A handwritten graph comparing influenza fatality rates from 1917 to 1918, "Boston Influenza chart," January 12, 1919 Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Print Department
A Boston patrolman wearing a mask, 1918 Courtesy of the Boston Public Library, Print Department
An in-depth article about influenza and the Glover Home and Hospital featured in the hospital publication Monitor: "Flashback - 1918 - Epidemic! A fledgling hospital and a closely-knit community face a critical challenge in the closing months of World War I as the 1918-19 flu epidemics come to Needham" By John Day, Spring 1979 Download PDF »